Dredging apparatus



Patented Apr. 12,1892;

(No ModelJ F. A. LOCKWOO-D.

DRBDGING APPARATUS. No. 472,735.

Ira/9W jmelank/A .Zo'ckwoocb I @WAWM UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERIC A. LOOKWOOD, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

DRE-Dome APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No.472,73 5, dated April 12, 1892. Application filed June 4, 1890. Serial No. 354,233- 7 (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERIO A. Loan- WOOD, of Boston, county of Sufiolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improve ment in Dredging Apparatus, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts. a

This invention is an improvement in dredging apparatus of that class shown and described in United States Patent of J. A. Ball, No. 299,945, dated June 10, 1884, in which the dredged materialis discharged into an elevated hopper, from which the material in a stream of water supplied to the hopper is carried by gravity to the shore or to any desired point for deposit. With the class of apparatus referred to, wherein the material admixed with water is carried away by gravity, it is necessary to employ an I elevated frame-work or tower, to which the hopper is secured near its top or upper end in order to obtain the-required force of gravity to, carry the mixture of water and dredge material to its plate of deposit, which place of deposit is of necessity limited as to elevation and distance. The apparatus with a tower or elevated frame-work is not only expensive to build and limited in its scope, but the entire power of the machine is required to carry the material to the shortest distance or to the slightest elevation with no means to increase that power if it is desired to carry the material beyond or above the limited scope of the machine; and it is the object of this invention to provide apparatus whereby the elevated frame-work or tower may be dispensed with and the cost of the dredging apparatus thereby materially cheapened, and whereby the power of the machine may be increased or diminished at pleasure, and also whereby the material may be carried to such distance or to such elevation as may be necessary with the use of such power and only such power as will carry the material to the point of deposit required.

In the machine herein to be described, the efficiency of which depends on gravity and not on atmospheric pressure, as is the case with all dredging-pumps in use, so far as known to me,I have provided a dredging apparatus with a preferably rotary pump placed with its inlet below the level of the water in which the vessel floats and with a dischargepipe, said pump having a suction-pipe connected at its outer end to a hopper to carry away from it in' a stream of water the dredged material which is discharged into it, which hopper may be elevated any convenient distance above the said water-level, and I provide the said pump with one or more waterinlet pipes below the water-level, they having suitable valves which are closed by pressure of dredge material from the hopper when the supply is maintained above the said water level, but which are opened by pressure'of the water when the dredge material gets below the said water-level to admit a supply of water to the pump the moment the supply of dredge material is exhausted to thereby properly wash the discharge-pipe clear of said dredge material, which might otherwise settle therein and stop it up.

My invention therefore consists in the combination, in a dredge, scow, or other mechanism adapted to carry away dredge material, of the following instrumentalities,viz: a hopper to receive dredge material, a pipe to supply a stream of water to said hopper, a pump having its inlet below said hopper, a pipe from said hopper to said pump, and a discharge-pipe, substantially as will be described.

Other features of my invention will be pointed out in the claim at the end of this specification.

Figure 1 in section and elevation shows a sufficient portion of dredging apparatus orscow to enable my invention to be understood, and Fig. 2 a top or plan view of a portion of the apparatus shown inFig. 1.

A represents a barge or scow, which may be of any usual or well-known construction, it being provided in accordance with my invention, with preferably a rotary pump a, having its shaft a connected to and rotated by a suitable engine a carried by the said barge. The pump a is placed with its inlet below the level of the water in which the vessel floats,

and has a suction-pipe a connected at its pipefor said hopper, the said hopper being ing forced through the discharge-pipe b of the pump. The said discharge-pipe may lead to the place of deposit for said material, or it may form the suction-pipe of another pump a auxiliary to the first one,'suitably located at a considerable distance from or height above the first barge or scow A, the said auxiliary pump, rotated by its-own engine, forming with its owndischarge-pipe one continuous discharge from the hopper a to the place of de 1 posit for said material, and by introducing additional auxiliary pumps with theirengines the discharge from the hopper a maybe continued to any desired distance or carried up to any desired elevation for the deposit of material.

In order to prevent the discharge-pipe from becoming clogged up or choked by the material in it in case the supply of waterand material from the hopper ct should cease or get with one or more separate water-inlet pipes 17', there being two such inlet-pipes herein shown connected to the pipe a below the water-level. Each water-inlet pipe I), preferably extended through the side of the vessel into the water, is provided with a check or other valve b ,(shown bydotted lines,) which is normally closed by the passage of water and material from the hopper a through the pipe (1 .but which valve, as herein indicated, is automatically opened by pressure of the waterin of material and water from the hopper d gets below the said water-level. The water admitted throughthe inlet-pipe Z7 is forced through the discharge-pipe b and carries away with it any material in the said discharge-pipe. The discharge-pipe b is also provided with a checkvalve 1) to prevent the backward flow of material in case the pump a, should stop before the material is cleared from the dischargep g Vhen it is desired to carry the dredge material a long distance or to ahigh elevation, the discharge-pipe b may form the suction-pipe of a second pump a located on any suitable support, as another barge or scow a only a portion of which is shown in Fig. 1, and, if desired,the discharge-pipe of the auxiliary pump a may form the suction-pipe of another auxiliary pump, and so on, and in this way it will be seen that the dredge material may be carried to any desired distance or to any desired elevation.

The pump a and the auxiliary pumps may, and in practice will be, run until clear water issues from the discharge-pipe b.

By means of the pump a I am enabled to dispense with an elevated frame or tower to support the hopper a, and may use instead a hopper located at any convenient distance above the level of the water in which thedredge orscow floats, and by means of the pump a and auxiliary pumps I am enabled to carry dredge material for deposit to any desired distance and to any desired elevation.

I claim- 1. In a dredge, scow, or other mechanism adapted to carry away dredge material, the i combination of the following instrumentalities, vizza hopper to receive dredge material, a pump a, having its inlet below said hopper, a pipe a from said hopper to the pump-inlet, and a discharge-pipe 19, substantially as described.

2. The combination, in a dredge, scow, or

; other mechanism adapted to carry away 5 dredge material, of the following instrumentalities,-viz: ahopper a to receive dredge material, a pipe (1 to supply a stream of waterto said hopper, a pump a, having its inlet below said hopper, a pipe a from said hopper to said ipump-inlet, a water-inlet pipe I), having a valve 79 and connected with the pipe a below the water-level, and a discharge-pipe 17, substantially as described.

below the water-level, the pump a is provided 5 3. The combination in a dredge, scow, or

other mechanism adapted to carry away dredge material, of the following instrumentalities, viz: a hopper a to receive dredge material, a pipe or conduit a to supply a stream of water to said hopper, a pump a, having its 5 inlet below said hopper, a piped from said hopper to said pump-inlet, a discharge-pipe-b, and an auxiliary pump at in the line of said 1 discharge-pipe and adapted to operate without breaking the continuity of discharge from the pump a, substantially as described.

which the vessel floats as soon as the supply a 4. The combination, in a dredge, scow, or

j other mechanism I adapted to carry away dredge material, of the following instrumentalities, viz: a hopper a to receive dredgematerial, a pipe of to supply a stream of water to said hopper, a pump a,'having its inlet below 1 said hopper, a pipe a from said hopper to said pump-inlet, a water-inlet pipe I), having a valve 5 and connected with the pipe a below the water-level, a discharge-pipe b, an auxiliary pump a in the line of said dischargepipe and adapted to operate withoutbreaking the continuity of discharge from the pump a, and a check-valve b substantially as described.

5. In a dredging or digging machine, the

Q combination of an excavating device, a'h'op- 1 per into which the excavating device delivers the spoil, and a discharge-pump having its inlet below the hopper, whereby a'supply of material to the pump will be caused by gravgity or hydraulic head-pressure, and a discharge-pipe connected to the pump,t-hrough which the spoil is forced to any desired point of deposit.

6. In a dredge, scow, or other mechanism adapted to carry away dredge material, the

combination of the following instrumentalname to this specification in the presence of ities, viz: a hopper to receive dredge material, two subscribing witnesses. a pump having its inlet below said hopper, a

conduit through which material is moved by I r FREDERIO LOOKWOOD' 5 gravity from said hopper into said pump, and Witnesses:

a discharge-pipe, substantially as described. GEO. W. GREGORY,

In testimony whereof I have signed my JAS. I-I. CHURCHILL. 

